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JERUSALEM (AP) \u2014 Israel\u2019s foreign minister said Monday that Brazil\u2019s president would not be welcome in Israel until he apologizes for comments he made comparing Israel\u2019s war in Gaza<\/a> to the Holocaust<\/a>, accusing him of a \u201cvery serious antisemitic attack.\u201d<\/p>\n On Sunday, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva<\/a> said that \u201cwhat is happening in the Gaza Strip and to the Palestinian people hasn\u2019t been seen in any other moment in history. Actually, it did when Hitler decided to kill the Jews.\u201d Lula made the comments while speaking to reporters at the African Union summit in Ethiopia.<\/p>\n Foreign Minister Israel Katz summoned the Brazilian ambassador to Israel\u2019s national Holocaust museum in Jerusalem on Monday for a reprimand.<\/p>\n \u201cThe things that Lula said when he compared the righteous war of the State of Israel against Hamas, which murdered and massacred the Jews, and Hitler and the Nazis is shameful and unacceptable,\u201d Katz said.<\/p>\n On Monday evening, Lula recalled Brazil\u2019s ambassador to Israel, Frederico Meyer, to the country for consultations, according to the Brazilian newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo.<\/p>\n Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a> said Sunday that Lula\u2019s comments \u201ctrivialized the Holocaust\u201d and \u201ccrossed a red line.”<\/p>\n Such comments strike a raw nerve in Israel, a country established as a haven for Jews in the wake of the Holocaust. Israel says its war in Gaza, launched in response to a deadly Hamas attack on Oct. 7, is defensive and rejects any comparisons of its offensive to the Holocaust.<\/p>\n Lula\u2019s comments came after leaders at the African Union summit on Saturday condemned<\/a> Israel\u2019s offensive in Gaza and called for its immediate end.<\/p>\n In the Oct. 7 attack, Hamas militants stormed into southern Israel and killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took around 250 hostage<\/a>. Militants still hold around 130 hostages, a fourth of them believed to be dead. Most of the others were released during a weeklong cease-fire in November.<\/p>\n The war has killed at least 29,092 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to the Health Ministry<\/a> in Hamas-ruled Gaza, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Around 80% of Gaza\u2019s population have been driven from their homes, and a quarter face starvation<\/a>.<\/p>\n The heavy death toll and widespread damage have led to mounting criticism of Israel and growing calls for a cease-fire.<\/p>\n Celso Amorim, former foreign affairs minister and a special adviser to Lula, told local news outlet G1 that Israel\u2019s reaction was \u201cabsurd.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt only increases Israel\u2019s isolation. Lula is sought after all over the world and at the moment it\u2019s Israel that\u2019s (persona) non grata,\u201d Amorim said.<\/p>\n Brazil\u2019s presidential palace and foreign affairs ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n First lady Ros\u00e2ngela da Silva, Lula’s wife, said she was proud of her husband for defending peace and the right to life for women and children. \u201cThe speech referred to the genocidal government and not to the Jewish people, let’s be honest in our analysis,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cNetanyahu should be concerned about the rejection he arouses in the world and in his own country, before trying to reprimand anyone who denounces his policy of exterminating the Palestinian people. He has no moral or political authority to point the finger at anyone,\u201d Gleisi Hoffmann, president of Lula\u2019s Workers\u2019 Party, told Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper.<\/p>\n Last week, Lula met with the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, Mohammad Shtayyeh, before participating in the African Union summit in Ethiopia\u2019s capital, Addis Ababa.<\/p>\n After the meeting, Brazil\u2019s presidential palace said: \u201cLula condemned Hamas attacks against Israeli civilians, indicated agreement with the need for a cease-fire and reiterated the Brazilian government\u2019s commitment to the two-state solution \u2014 with an economically viable Palestinian state, living in peace and security with Israel, within mutually agreed and internationally recognized borders.”<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Hughes reported from Rio de Janeiro.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n